This post contains spoilers from The Waterfront on Netflix from this point forward.
Netflix's hot new crime drama series The Waterfront ends its first season on a rocky note, with the Buckley family in deep danger and facing potentially fatal consequences for their actions. After Cane and Belle's risky business decisions in Harlan's absence have turned their North Carolina fishing empire upside down. They're in debt, running drugs, and beholden to dirty deals.
In the season finale episode, the Buckleys reel from Grady's violent warning. They attempted to outmaneuver him and skirt around their deal, but he proves he's one step ahead of them. When he fires another warning shot by taking one of the Buckleys as collateral, it's a race against time to save their family and beat Grady at his own game. Did they manage to free themselves?
Harlan and Cane save Bree and Diller from Grady
After a lot of near misses for the Buckley family, The Waterfont concludes the season with Bree going missing and the family scrambling to find her. She's been kidnapped and taken to the middle of the ocean on a boat with Grady and his men. Grady lashes out after Harlan went behind his back to the Parkers and wants to send another message (even after leaving two dead men in his office at the fishery). As it turns out, Diller followed his mom onto the boat and stashed away, now giving Bree all the more motivation to make sure they survive this encounter.
Grady sends Harlan coordinates to his location with Bree, but he's instructed to meet him alone. Shawn comes up with a plan for him and Cane to hide in a tight storage space on their boat to back up their dad. All of this happens unbeknownst to Bree, who fights back against Grady's men, getting herself shot and tossed into the ocean. Diller thinks on his feet and tosses a life raft kit overboard to his mom. She inflates the raft and immediately uses her belt for a tourniquet on her thigh.
Harlan, Cane, and Shawn ambush Grady and his men, resulting in a violent shootout. They kill all of Grady's men, leaving Grady defenseless. He taunts Cane about not being brave enough to shoot him, but Cane pulls the trigger on the two shots that kill Grady, sending him into the ocean. Meanwhile, Bree's just lucid enough to shoot off the flare gun, allowing her family to find and save her. She's alive and she makes it through surgery without incident. The new sheriff cleaned the boat for Harlan to save their butts, and they're now seemingly in the clear from this whole mess.
Belle continues the dangerous family business
While the worst seems to be in their rear view mirror now that Grady has died, Belle's keeping a major secret from Harlan and the family. She excuses herself from Bree's hospital room to take a phone call from Emmett Parker. He and his father have agreed to help her with the land deal so long as she takes over control. She chickens out on revealing to Harlan their latest deal with a different devil, allowing him to bask in the glory of winning and saving their family.
She meets Emmett at the fish house where his men are beating Wes Benson. They remove the tape from his mouth and he begs to "do anything." Belle looks on with an unreadable expression as the gravity of this deal, the guilt of what she's done, and also maybe even the rush of power washes over her. That's how the season ends, hinting that a potential second season would pick up with Belle running a new operation with the Parkers and using Wes as a pawn.
There are still a few loose threads that we get answers to. Do Cane and Peyton end up together? Yes, but it's a close call. She finds out he slept with Jenna, and she plans to make good on her threat to the other woman. However, Peyton learns Jenna's father died and helps her make arrangements. Later, she gives Cane a choice. He says he wants to be with her. Stoically, she pushes down his indiscretion and moves forward as if it never happened. It's almost chilling, but yes, they remain together. (It's worth noting that Cane only runs back to Peyton when Jenna turns him down.)
Also, Bree and Diller manage to repair their relationship. Throughout the season, Diller had been hard on his mom due to what they had been through, but after nearly losing her, they reconnect. His father had been pursuing a relocation to Virginia, which would take Diller away from Havenport, Bree, and the family, but he doesn't want to leave. By far, their story is the most earned development of the whole season.
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